I'm Back, I Think

I've been back for a few days now, but I'm having trouble finding the motivation/inspiration to write. Everything I think about is either going to take a while to write (and time is one thing I can't find enough of), or sounds like a broken record.

I'm stuck at 136. Again. It's déjà vu or something. Something irritating, like someone blocking the right lane waiting to go straight when you're trying to turn.

The good thing is that we were away for almost 2 weeks and I didn't gain. I actually consider this something of a miracle considering that we stopped at the Grand Ole Creamery not once but twice (!), and I was overcome by, as their website says, the "sweet-smelling, homemade, hand-rolled, malted waffle cones with a whopper in the bottom of each cone." The healthy eating pretty much went out the window those days.
The bad thing is that I've been back at 136 for like a month now, and it's been almost 2 months since I recommitted myself to the serious weight loss. I haven't been to the gym in the morning since we got back. Reading back through what I wrote before I left reminded me how much that seemed to be helping. Gotta get my ass out of bed in the morning.

Something I enjoy that I don't talk about here, for obvious reasons, is poker. I started playing several years ago, and for a while during my first marriage I was helping to supplement our income. Anyway, I don't have a chance to play very often anymore, but I do still read about it regularly, and so it was a neat intersection of two of my favorite things when I read about the Great Ted Forrest Weight Loss Bet of 2010™. Poker players are notorious for coming up with insane prop (proposition) bets, and this one is right up my alley. Mike Matusow and Justin "Boosted J" Smith bet Ted Forrest $2 million that he couldn't lose almost 50 pounds in 2 ½ months. Ted wasn't a big guy to start with... I think he started at 188 and had to get below 140. It's an interesting read if you have a little while... especially the part where he dropped the last 10 pounds in about 2 days. The most intriguing part has turned out to be Ted's reason for accepting the bet. You'd think it was the $2 million up for grabs, right? Not according to Ted. He said “Somebody I care about very much needed to see that the impossible is possible.”

That story has been in my head the last few days, and it keeps reminding me that what I'm trying to achieve isn't nearly as difficult as I keep trying to convince myself.